'Amazing Spider-Man' villain revealed

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The Outsiders star C. Thomas Howell has inadvertently revealed the identity of the main villain in next year's Spider-Man reboot.

During a Retroradio podcast, the actor discussed his supporting role in The Amazing Spider-Man, before confirming that The Lizard will indeed be the film's primary antagonist.

"I play a construction worker whose son is caught in the middle of a battle between The Lizard and Spider-Man on the Manhattan bridge," Howell revealed. "Spider-Man helps me get my son back from this perilous situation."

The actor also claimed that the film will focus more on the public's fear and mistrust of Spider-Man than Sam Raimi's original trilogy did.

"Part of the story is the nation thinks he might be a bad guy," Howell explained. "Spider-Man is kind of hurting. I help him when all of the other people won't."

The Lizard, a long-running enemy of Spider-Man in the comic book series, was created when Peter Parker's lecturer Dr Curt Connors injected himself with reptile DNA in an attempt to regrow a lost limb, but instead ends up turning himself into a mindless monster.

The Amazing Spider-Man is scheduled to be released in 3D on July 3, 2012.